Junior Hockey Owner Facing Charges

How many times do we attend a sporting event and listen to various forms or comments, racial slurs or in some cases even worse.

We see players at both the pro level and amateur level get involved in heated exchanges either on the ice, the field or the court, but we seldom hear of these away from the game.

I watch coaches shout verbal abuse to young officials, parents holler at their own Son or Daughter or worse yet, shout at someone else’s Son or Daughter to the point where it is clearly abusive and you have to ask if this could be misconstrued as child abuse?

Last fall we were aware of a  situation in Langley where the players got involved in an altercation that managed to escalate from players to the coaching staff, which warranted an investigation by the RCMP.

Now we are hearing of a situation involving an owner of the Campbell River Storm of the VIJHL, where charges have been laid.

The owner of the Campbell River Storm hockey team Kevin Spooner of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League is facing criminal charges after an incident police allege happened on December 12 of last year.

December 12th, 2015 the Campbell River RCMP responded to an assault call outside a residence on 16th Avenue Campbell River.

The Investigation revealed and a Crown report was submitted and Crown supported charges against Kevin Ronald Spooner.

There’s been one charge assault cause bodily harm and two charges of uttering threats, but this matter’s still before the courts at the time” stated Corporal Gord Hay of the Campbell River RCMP.

Campbell River Storm Coach

The Court documents reveal Spooner is charged with assaulting Lee Edwin Stone who is the Storm’s head coach.

He is also charged with two counts of uttering death threats, one to Linda Monica Spooner and another to Linda Monica Spooner to cause death or harm to Lee Edwin Stone.

These are not the first legal problems for Spooner.

In an unrelated case, a BC Provincial Court Judge ordered a Peace Bond be put in place in January 2015 to keep Spooner away from the owners of a rival team the Comox Valley Glacier Kings after a serious of confrontations with them.

The Campbell River Storm released the following statement:

“The Campbell River Storm are aware of the criminal allegations towards Kevin Spooner and while we cannot comment on an impending legal matter we would like to assure everyone that we hold the highest standard of conduct within our organization and have taken positive measures moving forward.”

They continued We are looking forward to the end of the regular season and another successful playoff run and will not have any further comment regarding such matter.

Yours in Hockey,
The Campbell River Storm”

The case is expected to go to trial in October.

Let’s hope this is only a case of a mix of line combinations.

It is interesting that in both cases with Langley and Campbell River, both involve owners!